Prep softball: Marin Catholic advances to Saturday's title game

Marin Catholic High softball pitcher Carly Slack's ankles are still a little sore.

There's nothing wrong with the freshman's arm, however.

Slack retired the final eight San Marin batters in order and Marin Catholic squeezed out an edge-of-the-seat come-from-behind 3-2 victory in a MCAL playoff semifinal game on a blustery Friday at the San Marin field.

The Wildcats (16-5) advance to Saturday's championship game against Redwood. Game time is 6:30 p.m. at San Marin.

"Carly is such a bulldog out there," MC coach Dave Albini said. "We're a much more confident team with Carly pitching."

Slack (15-3) missed the final two weeks of the regular season because of sore ankles and the front-running Wildcats dropped four of their final five games to fall to third place in the standings.

But Slack is back and so are the Wildcats.

"My ankles are all right, they're feeling a little better," said Slack, who scattered seven hits and struck out seven. "I'm still in a little pain but I just try to go out there and not think about it."

The defending league champion Mustangs (12-7) were the ones feeling the pain in the late innings as Slack settled into a late-game groove, fanning five of the final eight she faced.

Protecting a 3-2 lead in the seventh, Slack struck out No. 9 batter Dixie Thompson on a nasty 2-2 change-up for the first out of the inning.

Slack and the Wildcats, however, were far from out of the woods with the top of the order moving toward the plate headed by slugger Paige McIntosh, who San Marin coach Liz Hartmann moved to the leadoff spot after watching MC pitchers walk her four times in the last meeting between the two teams.

Albini called time and tried to convince Slack to walk the dangerous McIntosh, who crushed a pitch into the wind to deep center field in her previous at-bat, only to watch MC center fielder Nicole Marino rob her of a home run with a superb catch at the fence.

"That ball was out," Hartmann said. "She brought it back from over the fence."

Slack lobbied strongly to pitch to McIntosh and Albini finally gave in.

"Coach wanted me to walk her," Slack said. "But I convinced him to give me a shot at her."

Before he left the circle, Albini reminded his young pitcher not to throw anything over the middle of the plate.

Slack complied and fired a first-pitch fastball on McIntosh's fists and induced a harmless pop up just in front of the plate, snared easily by catcher Hannah Politzer. Slack struck out Tehya Wheeler swinging on a low 3-2 fastball to end the game.

Trailing 2-1 in the sixth, Marin Catholic tied the score with one out when freshman third baseman Destiny Buckhanan, who made several strong plays in the field, ripped a double into the left-center gap and scored when Alison Schultz lined a single up the middle.

The Wildcats loaded the bases in the seventh with none out without ever hitting the ball out of the infield. Sarah Ihnken led off and reached on a low throw from third, Marino legged out an infield single and Dominique Gold reached on a fielder's choice.

Julia Rabbitt, who had popped out in her three previous trips to the plate, jumped on a 1-0 fastball and lined a shot to left-center. San Marin left fielder Thompson ran it down with a nice running catch, but the relay throw to the plate was an instant late as Ihnken slid across the plate with the game-winning run.

"I've been struggling and getting under the ball a lot," Rabbitt said. "That last at-bat I wasn't thinking as much. I decided to just go straight to the ball. It was a low fastball right down the middle and it felt good when I hit it."